Cambodia forum

How dangerous is it for 2 people to drive on a single motorbike around Sihanoukville during the day and night time? And take a day trip from Sihanoukville to Kampot and back?

We have some experience with driving in Asia. We planned to spend about 20 days in December exploring Cambodia by motorbike with Sihanoukville as our base, but are having second thoughts about visiting Cambodia after reading about murders, beatings and ambushes of foreigners that happen in Cambodia.What are your expert opinions?

I gather that spending time at Ochheuteal beach after dark is unwise. Is the same true for all the beaches in Sihanoukville?

hey, it's probably not as bad as some of the reports you have read... i rented a bike for 2 weeks in Feb 2016 and rode from phnom penh, kep, kampot, koh kong, otres beach and back to phnom penh and didn't experience any problems, but always parked in manned parking areas, or hotels and locked the bike up during the evening, however, the company renting the bike said people could take the bike regardless of the precautions if they wanted too... if you wish to travel longer distances, try not to get too small a bike, it can get pretty boring... and riding distances at night is not really advisable either... but it's great to have the mobility a bike offers.

Me and my girlfriend just were in Cambodia for 3weeks. I also heard some scary stories from there before our trip, but we did not see or hear anything bad during our visit. We felt really safe all the time.

We were in Sihanoukville, some islands, Phnom Penh and Siem Reap. One thing that might feel scary is the police stopping tourist motorbikers and making them pay bribe of few dollars (the price is negotiable ). This happened especially in Sihanoukville.

Maybe I am just overly panicky. All your advice have put me at ease. I am not too worried about accidents since we have driven in Thailand and Philippines. So we have some experience with being fined by the police and the bike braking down. We always try to stay extra alert when driving in Asia.

Hey all! Our trip to Cambodia is unfortunately over so I will share my experiences with you.

After a month in Cambodia we have not felt threatened by anyone in any places we visited! The only marginally intimidating people were drunken white people in Phnom Penh . No one stole anything from us. We spent 22 days driving around Sihanoukville, went to Ream National Park, Kabal Chhay Waterfalls, Preah Monivong Bokor National Park, Kampot and Kep. All Cambodian people were just wonderful and extremely friendly. We were stopped by the police twice, but they let us go without fining us after we presented them with a drivers license and an official translation of the license into English. This, however, did not work in Phnom Penh xD. As far as we have seen, the roads are very good with very few potholes. We did witness a hit and run between a motorcycle and a mini truck. Both were overtaking the vehicle in front of them and not paying attention. The motorcyclist got away with few scrapes and bruises.

Maybe it is worth mentioning that we are not party people and thus avoided such places. We usually got up around 7, went exploring and returned to our room a few hours after nightfall (there is virtually no street lighting at night therefore not much to see in poorly populated areas).

Please login to add a reply

You need to be a Travelfish member to be able to add a reply to this post. Please use the button below to log in. After logging in you'll be returned to this page automatically to add your post. Not a member? Join up here.